Thwarting Deadly Lung Disease By Electrifying Water Reserves

By Ariel Grossman, NoCamels September 27, 2023 4 minutes

CET Enviro uses electric currents to cleanse the water circulating commercial buildings and residential facilities of Legionella bacteria (Depositphotos)

In 1976, a Philadelphia hotel hosted an annual convention to celebrate American war vets – but just days after its close, 25 attendees had died of what was believed to be a spate of sudden heart attacks.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) later found that a specific bacterium – bred in the cooling tower of the hotel’s air conditioning system and spread throughout the building – was the true cause of the tragedy.

Since then, Legionnaires’ disease – named for the veterans’ convention that had been staged by the American Legion at the hotel – has infected thousands of people every year.

The Legionella bacteria, which attacks the lungs, is potentially deadly and can infect people who accidentally swallow or merely breathe in small droplets of infected water.

Today environmentally friendly, chemical free technology developed by an Israeli firm is being used to cleanse cooling and heating towers of the bacteria and to prevent potential outbreaks.

1 in 10 people infected with Legionnaires’ will die of complications from it (Depositphotos)

On average 1 in 10 people who are infected with Legionnaires’ will die of complications from it, the CDC reports. This figure rises to 1 in 4 for people who contract in this serious form of pneumonia in a healthcare facility.

Cleaning Solution

CET Enviro uses electric currents to purify the water circulating through power plants, industrial chillers and the air conditioning systems in businesses, hotels and other residential facilities.

Every 40 minutes, the solution automatically funnels the water in these systems into a CET Enviro reaction tank placed on the roof of a building. In the tank, electrolysis generates strong oxidizing agents to inhibit the growth of Legionella bacteria by breaking the funneled water down to its basic, unbonded elements of hydrogen and oxygen.

An illustration of CET Enviro’s SBR system, which cleanses cooling towers of Legionella (Courtesy)

These oxidizing agents include naturally occuring chlorine, which can rid a cooling system of the Legionella bacteria by attacking its cell walls and breaking down its chemical bonds, causing it to literally fall apart.

“Our system is always cleaning, always filtering, always moving the water around,” says Asaf Dahan, CET Enviro’s chief product officer.

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Several other companies use electrolysis to clean water too, but what sets CET Enviro apart are several secret features within the reaction tank, according to Dahan.

“Electrolysis isn’t anything new – but we’ve patented add-ons to it that have improved the process,” he says.

What’s more, says Dahan, CET Enviro uses advanced sensors within its systems to gather data that isn’t normally collected by other water-cleaning companies, including the levels of pH and foreign substances in the water.

An illustration of CET Enviro’s electrolysis process, which results in the creation of chlorine and other oxidizing agents (Courtesy)

This allows CET Enviro to flag pollution issues within the cooling towers such as limescale and corrosion, before they become a serious problem and also cause disease.

The company says that its automated, online system also cuts energy costs by 15 percent, decreases water usage by up to 40 percent and slashes labor costs by up to half.

Most companies in the industrial and commercial cooling sector, according to Dahan, primarily use harsh chemicals – such as hydrochloric, sulfamic and methane sulfonic acid – to clean their water coolers.

The environmental impact of these chemicals aside, CET Enviro says they also fail to provide a permanent solution to preventing and eliminating the growth of Legionella.

CET Enviro’s SBR system is used in commercial building, industrial and power plant cooling towers (Pixabay)

Furthermore, such products are expensive and pose the risk of accidental toxic contamination for the workers who have to handle them.

Since its creation in 2015 by cleantech entrepreneur Tsur Ben David, CET Enviro has installed its systems in over 2,000 buildings worldwide. The firm is based in Pune, India, and conducts its R&D out of Israel.

Multiple sectors are already using the solution, CET Enviro says, including hotels and malls, pharma giant Teva, and even global electronics leader Samsung.

“We’re always searching for ways to improve our product while trying to understand the needs of our customers,” says Dahan. “We have different data and a different approach.”